Essay Prize: A great opportunity for budding dermatologists

Getting a dermatology specialty training number in the UK has become increasingly difficult and the extracurricular requirements are often overwhelming. Dimitrios Karponis, an ST2 Academic Clinical Fellow in dermatology, together with Altruist, would like to motivate budding dermatologists to achieve their dream. The winner will receive a 1-to-1 mentorship from Dimitrios himself, £100 and the whole range of Altruist products (except the Altruist 1 litre bottles)!

About the prize

Medical students and doctors in early training (FY1-IMT3 in the UK, or medical school graduates from overseas prior to SpR/resident training) are eligible to participate.

How does this work?

The prize will run on a yearly basis, with a different question every year. The essays will be marked by a multidisciplinary team of dermatologists, scientists or medical anthropologists in different stages of training. Submissions are now closed for 2024. The winner is Sanjiv Sharma!

Please submit your entries as a word document to our mail address below, with the title “essay prize” and including your name and stage of training. Please ensure not to include any personal identifiable information in the essay document.

Previous winners

Topic: You have been selected to go to a primary school to speak about the importance of sunscreen. What will you talk about?

Formatting

Referencing: Please use the Vancouver referencing style for any citations.

Figures: Maximum of 2 allowed.

Maximum word count: 1000 (excluding any figure legends, title and citations)

Feedback: Feedback will not be provided for the entries.

Please submit your entries as a word document to su************@gm***.com, with the title “essay prize” and including your name and stage of training. Please ensure not to include any personal identifiable information in the essay document. Altruist would like to use the essays as blog posts, therefore unless you inform us otherwise via email, you consent to  your essay being published as a blog on the Altruist website (with credits to you of course).

Marking criteria

  • Relevance to the question asked
  • Insight
  • Creativity
  • Impact (encourages reader to consider/explore the viewpoint discussed).
  • Accessibility (accessible to a lay audience)
  • Quality of writing (correct use of language)
  • Structure (arguments flow well)